WEAV will use magnetohydrodynamics. You know, what the russian sub in The Hunt for Red October used in the water, WEAV will do that but in the skies.

Subrata Roy, a scientist at the University of Florida, calls his aircraft a “wingless electromagnetic air vehicle,” or WEAV, and if it flies he says it could usher in a new age of aircraft design.

[…]

In Roy’s WEAV there will be two different sets of electrodes placed on a thin ceramic plate. One set will be located on the top and bottom of the craft to move ionized air down, providing lift, and another set along the sides to propel the aircraft forward. The electrodes create a conducting fluid by ionizing the surrounding air into plasma.

The force created by passing an electrical current through this plasma pushes around the surrounding air, and that air creates lift and momentum and provides stability.

[…]

The new aircraft does need air or at least a magnetic field in order to operate; it wouldn’t work in outer space or fly between planets, although Roy says it could fly missions on other planets. And don’t expect the WEAV to zoom away from Earth like the flying saucers in the movies.

So jump ships, shuttlecraft, puddle jumpers and the like. That’s what you’re telling me, scientists?

(via discovery, chris pirillo)